Is John Piper Happy?

00:00:00.000 | Well, it's a blunt question and it's a personal question.

00:00:07.560 | And it's a question from the UK from a listener named Tim who asks this, "Pastor John, my

00:00:11.440 | question is simply this.

00:00:14.080 | Is John Piper happy?

00:00:16.920 | You're clearly convinced biblically by Christian hedonism and have shown so helpfully over

00:00:20.720 | the many years how pursuing enjoyment in God brings him great glory.

00:00:24.320 | But how has this worked out in your life experience?

00:00:27.320 | How much of your Christian hedonism rests on the hope of the future and being glorified

00:00:31.800 | with Christ?

00:00:32.800 | Bottom line, are you happy right now?"

00:00:37.840 | I have asked this question to myself many, many times.

00:00:42.160 | Not only because I have written so much about the importance, indeed, indispensability of

00:00:49.320 | being happy in God, but also because the Bible simply says to John Piper, "Rejoice in the

00:00:58.040 | Lord, John Piper."

00:00:59.040 | And again, I say, "Rejoice."

00:01:00.640 | It's not a matter of mere personality, as Tim points out.

00:01:05.960 | It is a command of Scripture.

00:01:08.120 | So I take up the question, not because I feel any external constraint coming from one of

00:01:14.440 | our listeners, but because I live with the question all the time, because I live with

00:01:20.160 | the Bible all the time.

00:01:23.240 | So before I answer—and I will give a straight-out answer to the question, "Is John Piper happy

00:01:30.280 | now, ever?"—before I answer the question specifically, let me mention the biblical

00:01:37.920 | factors that make the question more complex than a simple yes or no would indicate, even

00:01:44.400 | though I'll try to give one.

00:01:46.560 | First, there is the biblical reality that Christians are not only obligated to rejoice,

00:01:53.120 | but obligated to be sad.

00:01:56.120 | Obligated to be sad.

00:01:57.660 | We are commanded to weep with those who weep, and I presume we're not supposed to be hypocrites

00:02:01.980 | when we do it.

00:02:03.920 | According to Romans 12, "Weep with those who weep.

00:02:07.920 | Rejoice with those who rejoice."

00:02:09.360 | For Paul says in Romans 9, at the beginning of that chapter, that he has constant anguish,

00:02:16.960 | that he's weeping all the time, in some sense, in his heart, because of the lostness

00:02:22.840 | of his fellow Jews.

00:02:24.840 | And Peter says in 1 Peter 1.6 that we are to rejoice even while being grieved through

00:02:32.920 | various trials.

00:02:34.040 | Not just threatened by trials, but really grieved, feeling them as grievous, yet rejoicing.

00:02:40.480 | And 2 Corinthians 6.10 says Christians are "sorrowful, yet always rejoicing."

00:02:50.520 | So, the first thing to be said about being happy in God is that in the Christian heart

00:02:58.120 | that is sensitive to the sorrows of the world, happiness will always be intermingled with

00:03:04.960 | sorrow.

00:03:06.960 | How this looks will probably vary from personality to personality, but in this fallen world,

00:03:15.800 | true spiritual happiness, that is, Holy Spirit-given happiness, will always be experienced as conflicted

00:03:26.600 | and not perfectly harmonious.

00:03:30.680 | That's certainly true for me, anyway.

00:03:33.280 | Here's the second thing that I need to say before I give my answer.

00:03:38.680 | This tension between sorrow and joy is not merely a tension, but a design by God to make

00:03:49.360 | our happiness deeper and purer.

00:03:53.640 | It's not like they're just in competition, but one of them is serving the other.

00:03:58.200 | Paul makes that so plain in Romans 5, 3-4, that tribulation is serving our hope and our

00:04:06.240 | joy.

00:04:07.240 | It doesn't just combat our joy, though it does that.

00:04:12.480 | It deepens it and strengthens it.

00:04:15.760 | And the third thing to say is that Paul talks about a fight of faith.

00:04:22.320 | And since joy and faith are interwoven inextricably, the fight for faith is always a fight for

00:04:31.320 | joy.

00:04:32.400 | And that means for the apostle and all the rest of us, there will be ups and downs as

00:04:39.440 | the warfare advances and recedes.

00:04:44.080 | Fourth, Paul teaches us that the ministry of the apostles, and I think by implication

00:04:50.600 | then the ministry of pastors and the ministry of churches, is to, he says, "We work with

00:04:56.960 | you for your joy," 2 Corinthians 1:24, or Philippians 1:25, "I know that I will remain

00:05:04.080 | and continue behind for your progress and joy of faith."

00:05:08.840 | In other words, joy is a dynamic thing that not only requires our personal encounter with

00:05:15.800 | hope-giving promises in the Bible, but also requires our involvement with the church and

00:05:22.840 | with the ministry of the Word that is designed by God to help us fight the fight for joy.

00:05:29.760 | And that goes up and down.

00:05:32.800 | So here's my answer to the question, "Is John Piper happy?"

00:05:38.080 | Yes, I am happy.

00:05:41.320 | And yes, a huge component of this happiness is what Paul calls in Romans 5 to rejoicing

00:05:50.400 | in hope.

00:05:52.360 | In other words, looking beyond the present reasons for sadness, and they are sometimes

00:05:57.480 | overwhelming, which is why we have to do this, looking beyond the reasons for sadness now

00:06:02.840 | to the future reasons for joy when all the sad things will be set right.

00:06:08.540 | God intends for the promises of that future joy to penetrate back into the present and

00:06:15.880 | sustain us with measures of joy now in the midst of sorrow.

00:06:22.500 | But I would say also that all the failures of my life, I think, can probably be laid

00:06:34.000 | at the feet of failures to be happy in God.

00:06:37.720 | I think all my failures of fear, like when I have copped out on not bearing witness the

00:06:43.360 | way I should, all the failures of fear are owing to a failure to rejoice in the promises

00:06:49.420 | of God and His care for me and His promise to work with me and through me.

00:06:53.360 | All my failures of anger, which have probably cost me more than I know, are owing to failures

00:07:01.940 | to rejoice in the providence and grace and goodness of God.

00:07:07.920 | And all my failures of lust are owing to failures of joy that come through pure-eyed sight of

00:07:16.460 | God's all-satisfying glory.

00:07:18.500 | And of course, the list could just go on and on.

00:07:22.380 | So yes, I am happy.

00:07:25.840 | I am happy in God, both because of what I experience of Him in His Word and in His world,

00:07:34.000 | all of it by the Holy Spirit.

00:07:36.800 | God is the lodestar of my sky.

00:07:40.920 | He's the true north of my life compass.

00:07:45.940 | He is the blazing sun at the center of my emotional solar system, and He is the unerasable

00:07:54.560 | home setting on the GPS of my life, which means that by His grace, when my heart begins

00:08:04.440 | to wander toward another competing satisfaction besides God, God has always, it's been 70

00:08:14.280 | years, I pray that He will be faithful.

00:08:16.920 | I believe He will be faithful.

00:08:19.200 | He has always exerted a Holy Spirit gravitational pull on me that has brought the planets of

00:08:29.560 | my life back into their God-treasuring orbits around His glory.

00:08:37.120 | So I very much look forward to the day when I will be free, the day when I'm with Jesus,

00:08:43.760 | and I will be free from warfare and free from sinning.

00:08:49.920 | And I think if you ask me the same question in 50 years, I will answer from heaven a simple

00:08:57.760 | yes.

00:08:58.760 | Beautiful.

00:08:59.760 | Thank you, Pastor John.

00:09:00.760 | That's a great question, Tim.

00:09:01.760 | Thank you for sending it in to us.

00:09:05.560 | And no need to be timid when you ask the questions.

00:09:08.200 | Make them sharp and pointed, just like Tim did today.

00:09:11.280 | The more pointed, the better.

00:09:12.280 | Well, we are going to break for the weekend now, and this is my chance to remind you that

00:09:15.600 | you can subscribe to our audio feeds and search our episode archive and even reach us by email

00:09:19.400 | with your questions.

00:09:20.400 | You can do all that through our online home at desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn.

00:09:26.800 | And Monday, a listener wants to know what Paul means when he says that all of our works

00:09:31.160 | will be tested by fire.

00:09:33.620 | And how can we work now to ensure eternal gain in the end?

00:09:38.320 | Another great question.

00:09:39.320 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke.

00:09:40.680 | Have a great weekend, and we will see you on Monday.

00:09:43.040 | [END]

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Is John Piper Happy?

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